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Basic Hauptwerk questions

Greetings All. This is my first time to "visit" this particular part of the forum. I've been seeing a lot about Hauptwerk, and after I listened to a recording of it, I was totally amazed and now my curiosity is piqued. I did not thoroughly check this particular section, so if there is introductory information, I'd appreciate if one of you could direct me to the link (I know..I'm being lazy!). Otherwise, could someone tell me what the average cost is for a download that would include, say about 40-50 ranks of an organ? Also, what kind of money am I looking at if I wanted to buy a two manual keyboard and set of base pedals that would be "hauptwerk compatible"? I'm sure someone is probably manufacturing compact consoles specifically for hauptwerk purposes . I know organs that have midi in them will work, but I don't have one of those.

Greetings. As for the cost of Hauptwerk itself, you can download a free version with some limitations, but it'll help you make significant headway in deciding whether to buy the software (which costs about US$250 for the basic version). The free version includes a nice organ with plenty of stops to set the feel, and you can download a number of other free sampled organs from various sites... still, no cost, so far.

Rather than Hauptwerk, you might also explore GrandOrgue - which is 100% free since it's open source freeware.

But now, as for the rest of your set-up, that's harder to do on the cheap...

You'll need some kind of MIDI-enabled keybed (one or two manuals?), plus you'll likely want a MIDI-capable pedal board to take advantage of the pipe organ pedals.

Regardless, without a computer you won't get anywhere at all, since you need one to run the Hauptwerk software (or GrandOrgue) itself.

There are plenty of posts throughout this forum here (and on the Hauptwerk site) about what kinds of gear you'll need to get up and running, so I won't attempt to replicate these (nor would I do a very good job since I'm a relative newbie at this stuff).

You might also check out www.pcorgan.com where there's a wealth of info relevant to your question(s).